A fun birthday

Not much I have to say here - I was able to celebrate my birthday this year with family in the States. We celebrated being together, but very importantly, celebrated being from Boston - early in the Red Sox season, and right at the time that the Bruins were fighting for the Stanley Cup (we were still in town for game 1 and watched it anxiously from the Netherlands upon our return) - GO BOSTON!!!

I can't take credit for any of the pics, as I was busy being the birthday girl - so thanks to my aunt Nancy and hubby Alex for capturing the essence of this very fun day!

Alex bought me a MacBook for my birthday, so it has taken me a bit of time to get out of my PC head and into the ins and outs of the Mac (which I love!) It has some great advantages, particularly where processing and working with my photos is concerned, but it has taken some time to make the transition and learn how to do it on a different platform.

I'll be posting about our trip to Greece shortly!!

Our Holiday in Greece

In mid-July, Alex and I headed to the island of Corfu, Greece in the Ionian Sea (about 100 miles southeast of the heel on the boot of Italy and only about two miles from Albania). The island offers a bit of everything and is stunning. We stayed at the beautiful Grecotel Eva Palace, a romantic and luxurious resort on the Kommeno peninsula. The hotel offered live entertainment in the evenings and it was nice, although we spent most of our evenings out and about. It also had an amazing spa which Alex visited several times and at which we spent one relaxing afternoon having a romantic couples massage.

For the first couple of days, it was time for decompression - lounging by the pool or the beach, reading, sipping cocktails, just enjoying the amazing beauty and perfect weather. During the course of our time in Corfu, we had plenty of feta cheese, lots of lamb, Greek yoghurt with walnuts and honey - and I've been Wii-Fitting like mad since our return as I only used the fitness center once during our stay!

The resort has a beautiful pool area, but also a lovely beach tucked into a private cove. There is really no tide, perhaps a six inch varation in 24 hours. We chose a side of the beach where there were stones rather than sand, which was a bit tough on the tootsies. And for the first time since I purchased a pair of water shoes several years ago (and have yet to wear) I didn't actually *pack* th water shoes :) So we coined the awkward dance across the stones to and from deeper water the "Corfu Shuffle" - well worth the hobbling to reach deeper water where we could float and swim in the very salty Ionian Sea.



Mid-week we rented a car so that we could explore the island - and we did so for three days, driving up along the northern part of the island, through the middle, to the south side and all around. We drove through villages, olive groves, along the beaches and even through the center of a *tiny* village - where the buildings were so close together and the road so narrow that the rear view mirrors actually scraped along the walls! So many interesting places! Corfu, Dassia, Ipsos, Roda, Sidari, Paleokastritsa, Pelekas, Agios Gordis, Agios Mattheos, Agios Georgis, Kavos and more!



We travelled along the north side of the island from Ipsos to Sidari and making our way back across and south through some zig-zaggy roads! We also explored the southern side of the island, making our way all the way Kavos, a resort designed for young Brits (late teens to 30) to spend their holidays. I'm afraid it seemed all a bit seedy and sticky to me, but I'm sure if I was 20 it might have lots of appeal. We continued our journey by way of Korission Lake, Agios Mattheos and Sinarades, crossing back across the island to Corfu and back to Komeno Bay.



We'd planned to use a taxi to get to and from the local towns for the remainder of the trip, and chose first to go to Gouvia, just a five minute drive from our hotel. We happened upon a huge traditional Greek restaurant with live Greek dancing (interactive)! Alex wasn't so keen on trying it, but you know I had to and I found myself holding hands with strangers and dancing both in and outside of the restaurant with about 50 others who enjoyed the experience with me while Alex took videos and photos.








A couple of nights later when we returned to Gouvia we had not only some of the best Tex-Mex Food (no kidding - a placed called "Three Monkeys") that I've had in Europe, we saw the BEST ELVIS IMPERSONATOR EVER! This guy was smooth. He had it all - the body type, the costumes, the voice and the star quality and magnetism. It was a small pub that we'd just randomly chosen for a beer before heading back to the hotel. Several hours later we poured out of the pub having had just a delightful evening of partying and dancing with a friendly group of punters other pub-goers - a smashing good time! We loved Gouvia!

On our last day with the car we drove back up north and spent the afternoon at the beach on Roda and came back via a different route than before so that we could see even more of the island. Planning to return to Gouvia again for another fun night, we were disappointed to find out that the taxis - all across Greece - had gone on strike.

No worries for us, we knew of a restaurant nearby that we'd wanted to try, so we walked just a few minutes and up a very steep hill to be rewarded with a spectacular view and we enjoyed a relaxing dinner overlooking Gouvia Bay. Not Gouvia, but at least we could see it :)

The following day the taxis were still on strike (as they were for the remainder of the trip), so we walked into nearby Dassia. Not a terribly long walk, but it is pretty hot in Corfu in mid-July, so we burned some calories! We wandered around the shops and stopped for lunch before walking back to the hotel - more uphill than down so more caloric burn!

We were almost glad that the taxis were unavailable the next evening becuse the phone-hacking scandal in the UK was all over the news. We didn't want to miss anything and it gave us an excuse to stay in! So we ordered room service and watched all the testimony from the Murdochs and others. It was juicy stuff and quite interesting to watch live testimony to Parliament by such prominent figures.

On our last full day we took another walk into Dassia during the day, cocktails by the pool and a quiet dinner at the hotel's beautiful restaurant and it was an early night before our departure from Corfu.

It was a delightful and relaxing trip with yet more new terrific experiences - simply wonderful.